History Main / TrilogyCreep

* ''{{Saw}}'' was originally intended to be a stand-alone film. Because of the astounding success of that one, they decided to end on the third movie. Obviously, they came back after the third one and just decided to flesh out a story and keep writing until they came up with the perfect ending. They came up with an additional 5 scripts. The trope was slightly inverted when they had to cut down to 4 scripts because of the success of the Paranormal Activity franchise, which would later cause the death of the Saw franchise.

* ''{{Saw}}'' was intended to end on the third movie. Somehow the studio decided to compromise with seven.

* ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'''s third movie was explicitly called "Farewell Kamen Rider Den-O: The Final Countdown", and features a PassingTheTorch aspect with the introduction of a new Den-O, and on a meta level it was believed to be the end of the series because star Takeru Satoh was moving on to other roles. Another three / five ''Den-O'' movies[[hottip:*:depending on whether you count the Chō Den-O Trilogy movies as one big one or three smaller ones]] have come out since then. Possibly lampshaded in the DVD release of "Final Countdown", where a short extra cartoon has one character remark that, for all the talk of "final" and "conclusion", that doesn't stop them from making more sequels.

* Bioware has announced it's working on a fourth MassEffect installement. It's yet to be seen if this is an example or not, since even before ''Mass Effect 3'' was released, Bioware very specifically said that the third entry would be ''Commander Sheperd's'' last adventure, not the end of the franchise.

* Inverted with ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': when Tolkien finished it, it was in six 'books', with Tolkien wanting it published either all at once or possibly in two volumes. His publishers convinced him to extent it to a trilogy.

* ''The EarthseaTrilogy''. Oh wait, sorry - that's ''The Earthsea Quartet'', completed by ''Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea''. Uh-oh, hold up - of course it's ''The Earthsea Cycle''... the series currently stands six books long (and one of those is a short story collection).

* SpikeMilligan's war memoirs started with ''Literature/AdolfHitlerMyPartInHisDownfall'' and were planned as a trilogy. Eventually, there were seven books, extending out significantly beyond the actual war.

* When Bernard Cornwell was inspired by the popularity of the ''{{Sharpe}}'' television series to write some more novels, he wrote three books set prior to the Peninsular War setting of the existing novels. They were quickly dubbed the prequel trilogy by fans. Then he wrote two more. (Although as the first three concerned Sharpe's adventures in India and the other two dealt with the earlier part of the Napoleonic conflict, they seemed to have been rebranded the India trology.)

* AnneRice's ''Vampire Chronicles''.

* Mickey Zucker Reichert's ''Renshai'' trilogy started out as a stand-alone trilogy. Then she wrote a sequel trilogy. And then she wrote a sequel to the sequel trilogy.

** However, ''To Green Angel Tower'' (of the ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' trilogy) was split into two books for the paperback edition and at least one translation.

* John Marsden's ''Tomorrow, When the War Began'' series was originally a very tightly written trilogy, that afterwards ended up seven books. There is also a post-war series as well now.

* One utterly ''insane'' example is HarryTurtledove, particularly since it was unexpected: his TL-191 series started with a one-off prequel, ''How Few Remain'', then a trilogy called ''The Great War''. All of which fitted the planned releases that had been "Coming Soon" in the fronts of his novels for years. Then suddenly the one round-up book that would have dealt with events later on, called ''The Great War: Settling Accounts'', grew to '''seven huge books''', the ''American Empire'' trilogy and then the ''Settling Accounts'' tetralogy. The vast amount of padding and repetition involved in these seven, along with what is broadly considered to be a significant decline in writing quality, has led [[AlternateHistoryDotCom some to accuse]] Turtledove of deliberately writing {{Doorstopper}}s to put his kids through college.

* ''The Emigrants'' by Vilhelm Moberg was originally intended as a trilogy, but the third book was split into two. It is even more noticable in the original Swedish titles, where the fourth book has an OddNameOut (''The Emigrants'' about leaving Sweden, ''The Immigrants'' about arriving in America and traveling to where land is handed out, ''The Settlers'' about starting up farming in a new country - and ''The Last Letter Home'' continues that story). The second book is normally called ''Unto a Good Land'' in English.

* Meg Cabot's ''Princess Diaries'' series was planned to be a trilogy, and the first three books do make for a complete story, but Cabot kept writing books until they reached the number of ten, not counting spin-offs.

SF author Creator/OrsonScottCard has suggested that this is the result of ExecutiveMeddling; rather than allow an author to write the books he wants to, publishers pressure him into producing sequel after sequel in order to take advantage of the preexisting fanbase and milk a CashCowFranchise bone-dry. (Note he also made the distinction between genuinely expanding a story versus ''splitting'' a story up due to excessive length, such as was the case with his ''Xenocide'' and ''Children of the Mind'' - not to mention [[QuentinTarantino Tarantino's]] ''Film/KillBill'').

* One utterly ''insane'' example is HarryTurtledove, particularly since it was unexpected: his TL-191 series started with a one-off prequel, ''How Few Remain'', then a trilogy called ''The Great War''. All of which fitted the planned releases that had been "Coming Soon" in the fronts of his novels for years. Then suddenly the one round-up book that would have dealt with events later on, called ''The Great War: Settling Accounts'', grew to '''seven huge books''', the ''American Empire'' trilogy and then the ''Settling Accounts'' tetralogy. The vast amount of padding and repetition involved in these seven, along with what is broadly considered to be a significant decline in writing quality, has led [[AlternateHistoryDotCom some to accuse]] Turtledove of deliberately writing [[DoorStopper Door Stoppers]] to put his kids through college.

* Chris Walley's ''Literature/LambAmongTheStars'' trilogy is actually an {{aversion}} in that when the third book was written and found to be a DoorStopper, Walley went back and edited the first two books into a single book. The new third book ends the series in such a way that it would be incredibly difficult to continue it. This was a case of subverted ExecutiveMeddling, since Tyndale asked him to do it. Subverted in that having three similar-sized books works much better than two small and then two large.

* ''WebAnimation/TurnaboutStorm'' is an interesting case. Originally a 4-part series, the episode count increased to five when ''Part 3'' was split into two episodes via SimultaneousArcs, but with the final part still being called ''Part 4'' -- At least until ''Part 5/4'', the real conclusion, was confirmed via {{Cliffhanger}}.

* Diana Gabaldon's ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' was originally supposed to be two books... then three... then four... then a double-trilogy. The seventh book (which does not seem to be the last) is coming out in Fall 2009. The author never explicitly said to her publishers that it was ''supposed'' to be a trilogy-- only that she had at least two more books after the first in her, and she ran with that. Several of the Lord John stories exhibit short story creep, since Gabaldon's idea of a [[DoorStopper short]] story grew into a publisher's idea of a complete novel.

** And in the case of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII the game spearheading their campaign]], Square Enix are not content with just making [[{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}} a straight sequel to it]], but they also have plans to carry on to [[{{VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII an entire trilogy]].

** And in the case of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII the game spearheading their campaign]], Square Enix are not content with just making [[{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}} a straight sequel to it]], but they also have plans to carry on to [[{{VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII an entire trilogy}}.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' is a strange case, in that the trilogy is expanding [[SubvertedTrope inwards.]] There hasn't been a main third console game yet, but an absurd amount of handheld [[AnachronicOrder sequels/prequels/interquels]] are being released instead. By the time ''Kingdom Hearts 3'' ''is'' released, the series will likely have nine games: that's ''three'' trilogies - and good luck understanding ''3'' if you've ignored the non-console games.

** And in the case of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII the game spearheading their campaign]], Square Enix are not content with just making [[{{Final Fantasy XIII-2}} a straight sequel to it]], but they also have plans to carry on to an entire trilogy.

See also FranchiseZombie.

* ''FanFic/TurnaboutStorm'' is an interesting case. Originally a 4-part series, the episode count increased to five when ''Part 3'' was split into two episodes via SimultaneousArcs, but with the final part still being called ''Part 4'' -- At least until ''Part 5/4'', the real conclusion, was confirmed via {{Cliffhanger}}.

SF author Creator/OrsonScottCard has suggested that this is the result of ExecutiveMeddling; rather than allow an author to write the books he wants to, publishers pressure him into producing sequel after sequel in order to take advantage of the preexisting fanbase and milk a CashCowFranchise bone-dry. (Note he also made the distinction between genuinely expanding a story versus ''splitting'' a story up due to excessive length, such as was the case with his ''Xenocide'' and ''Children of the Mind'' - not to mention [[QuentinTarantino Tarantino's]] ''KillBill'').

* "Hitman Trilogy", a boxset for the [=PS2=], actually features the second, third and fourth entries in the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series (''Silent Assassin'', ''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money''), skipping the original game in the entirely. The original game in the series, ''Hitman: Agent 47'', was a PC-exclusive.
* HideoKojima did not intend to direct any of the Franchise/MetalGear sequels beyond ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. When he was brought back to direct ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', he ended the story with an inconclusive ending and then followed it up with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', a prequel that was marketed as "the final game in the Metal Gear Solid trilogy." However, due to much demand after the open-ended nature of ''Sons of Liberty'', Kojima was brought back again for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' to tied up all the loose ends and conclude Solid Snake's storyline. Despite this, the Metal Gear series continues on with a series of prequels starring Big Boss (such as ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'') and ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' (a spinoff starring Raiden).
* After the release of ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals'', series creator Al Lowe insisted that there wouldn't be a ''Larry [[ExactWords 4]]'', partly thanks to how Lowe essentially wrote himself into a corner without any idea how Larry 3's ending could lead into a sequel. Instead, he chose to skip the fourth installment (retroactively referred to as ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 4: The Missing Floppies'') completely and carry on straight into ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work'', where the absence of a fourth game is actually a ''plot point'', and both Larry and Patti have amnesia because the BigBad stole the Larry 4 disks.
* ''JakAndDaxter'' was originally intended as a trilogy and thus was written as such: at the end of the third one the Precursors are revealed and the BigBad is defeated. However, a racing spinoff was released a year later, followed by a PSP game with Daxter in the lead, and a PS2 game developed by a different team than original creator Naughty Dog.

* After ''AnotherCenturysEpisode 3: The Final'' came out, many people were hoping for a new "A.C.E." game would be released sometime. Low and behold, A''notherCenturysEpisode: R'' for the PlayStation3. Note, however, that it is more or less a new continuity as opposed to an actual story continuation. Incidentally, [[WordOfGod Director Terada more or less said]], "I don't know why we called A.C.E.3 The Final (due to them apparently having every intention of making a new game). So, let's just say that A.C.E.3 was 'The Final' PlayStation2 A.C.E. game."

* ''FanFic/TurnaboutStorm'' is an interesting case. Originally a 4-part series, the episode count increased to five when ''Part 3'' was split into two episodes via SimultaneousArcs. [[spoiler:Then it raised to six with ''Part 5/4'']].

* Inverted with ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings]]'': when Tolkien finished it, it was in six 'books', with Tolkien wanting it published either all at once or possibly in two volumes. His publishers convinced him to extent it to a trilogy.

* Creator/StephenKing declared in his afterword to ''The Gunslinger'' that he foresaw ''TheDarkTower'' eventually comprising six to seven novels, spanning 3,000 or so pages, and taking anywhere from 20 to 300 years to write. He made good on the ''letter'' of his promise; the finished series is seven books and runs a little over 3,000 pages, but the series itself [[CanonWelding spilled over]] into over a dozen of his other novels, which amounts to tens of thousands of pages overall.

* After ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'' wrapped up the trilogy started with ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime Sands of Time]]'' and continued with ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin]]'', a fourth game in the same continuity, titled ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'', was made in order to capitalize on the release of the ''[[Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime Sands of Time]]'' movie. This is a particularly transparently cash-grabbing example, as a ContinuityReboot had been produced in the intervening years.